Nightmare
by lrhaboggle
Summary: Simple fluffy one-shot. Glinda has a nightmare and her knight in shining green armor comes to the rescue. (Chap 2 is just the reverse. This time, Elphaba is stricken with a nightmare and it's up to a certain bubbly little blond to bring her back to reality). Can be romantic or platonic.
1. Nightmare

A panicked whine pieced the silent night air and Elphaba shot awake in alarm. Even though she had been in a deep sleep mere seconds before, she would recognize that scream anywhere. It belonged to her roommate and best friend...

"Glinda!" Elphaba called out on reflex. She nearly fell out of her bed in her haste to figure out what was wrong. She ran over to Glinda's bedside and shook her awake. When Glinda's blue eyes finally shot open, she gave out another cry of terror. From her perspective, all she could see was a tall and dark figure, looming over her.

"No, no,! Stay away! Leave me alone! Leave _her_ alone!" Glinda twisted away from Elphaba. Elphaba instantly let Glinda go and tried to make herself look smaller, raising her hands in surrender.

"Hey, hey! Glinda, Glinda! It's me! It's Elphaba Thropp!" she continued to try and soothe her roommate. It took a moment or two, but Elphaba was finally able to get through to her roommate and Glinda finally realized just who it was, looming over her bedside.

"Elphie!" Glinda cried in recognition and understanding, then she launched herself at Elphaba and hugged her tightly. "Oh! Elphie! It's you! Thank Oz, it's you!" she blubbered.

"Woah, woah, woah! Take it easy there, Glinda! What's going on? What happened?" Elphaba tried again to soothe her roommate. Unused to giving comfort, however, all she could do was awkwardly pat Glinda on the head as Glinda continued to babble and sob into her chest, still clinging to her like a drowning man to a rope. "Come on, Glinda, come on, pull yourself together!" she grunted uncomfortably. She felt bad about being so blunt with Glinda, but she wasn't sure what else she was supposed to be doing at a time like this. She wasn't used to being hugged either. "Do you want to talk about it?" she tried next. That finally seemed to work.

It still took a few seconds for Glinda to gain enough composure to speak coherently, but at last, the little blond was able to catch her breath and she shakily explained to her roommate what she had just witnessed.

"I just... I had... a nightmare," Glinda began, sounding almost ashamed of herself.

"And what happened in it?" Elphaba tried to speak as gently as possible. She carefully pushed Glinda back onto her bed and joined her at her side so that Glinda was no longer hanging halfway off the mattress, trying to hug her.

"You... well... you... died..." even though it was very dark in their dorm room, the moon being of no use this night, Elphaba could still see Glinda's face twist in pain at the memory of the incident.

"I died," Elphaba echoed softly, also slightly surprised by just who had starred in her bad dreams.

"I couldn't see who, _or what_ , did it. It was just some shadowy figure," Glinda shook her head in anger and dismay. "I don't even remember where we were. It wasn't any place I had ever been in before! All I could remember was you, and me, and that shadow. That awful shadow!" Glinda's voice broke a little but she continued to speak. "It killed you. It threw some kind of spell or magic potion at you and you began to melt, right in front of me. Right before my very eyes. And you, you were screaming. You were in so much pain... But I couldn't do anything! I couldn't move! I couldn't speak! I could hardly even breathe! I was totally immobilized. I could only watch, I could only watch. And you were in so much pain, screaming, dying. You... and I couldn't... I don't know what I..."

Glinda broke off again, having re-upset herself. She did not start sobbing or screaming, but she buried her face in her hands and started to tremble, shoulders jerking in the darkness. Elphaba felt her heart twist in pain again. Although she had to admit that this was a very strange dream indeed, probably a result of Glinda pulling too many all-nighters in one week and whatever might've been in that punch that Fiyero had stashed in his dorm, none of that mattered at the moment. All that mattered was that Glinda was upset, and it was all because of Elphaba (in some sense).

"Hey, hey, it's not your fault. You did nothing," Elphaba tried, unfortunately, her gentle words only seemed to make the situation worse.

"But that's just it!" Glinda wailed, voice raising for the first time that night. "I _didn't_ do anything! I only watched! I didn't... I couldn't... I couldn't save you!" Glinda began to run her hands through her golden girls, hyperventilating. Elphaba could only watch hopelessly. It seemed that no matter what she said, that only upset Glinda more, but she couldn't just leave Glinda to suffer like this... Wait a minute!

An idea suddenly came to Elphaba and she slowly began to get up from Glinda's bed.

"No!" Glinda shrilled again. "Don't leave me! Please, don't leave me!" Glinda had never sounded so lost and lonely before and Elphaba touched her cheek gently to reassure her.

"Don't worry," the green girl promised softly. "I'm not going far. Just let me get something from my bed. Ok?" Elphaba tried to get up again, but Glinda had since grabbed her hand and refused to let go. Elphaba smiled sadly at her roommate through the darkness before sighing affectionately. "Oh, come here, you little idiot," she murmured gently. "Help me with our beds..." and she held onto Glinda tightly as they stood up together.

A few minutes later, Elphaba and Glinda were nestled side by side in the pink and black double bed that they had made.

"Oh, thank you Elphie! I feel so much better now!" Glinda sighed happily, sounding a lot more like her old self again. She snuggled closer to Elphaba. She was still a bit shaken up by that awful nightmare, but she was already starting to feel better with Elphaba so close to her.

"Of course," Elphaba replied, still slightly uncomfortable with how snuggly Glinda was getting, but she pushed aside her discomfort and reminded herself that this was Glinda, here. Glinda didn't mind sharing a bed. Glinda wasn't freaked out or bothered at all by it. Instead, she moved closer to Glinda as well until their sides were pressed together and right before the two of them both slipped back into the dreamworld, Elphaba sleepily whispered one last thing to the warm body beside her.

"Don't worry, Glinda, nothing like that awful nightmare will ever really happen, and I will never ever leave you..."

 **AN: Cliché as this is, this was my very 1** **st** **Wicked fic. You can choose to see Elphaba and Glinda as romantic or platonic here, I don't care. Either works. I'll be mass-posting as many Wicked fics as I can now, in honor of the fact that this month is the month in which this musical came out, 15 years ago.**


	2. Prison of Her Mind

Glinda's eyes suddenly shot open. Confused and a little irritated, she sat up. It was the middle of the night and she had been in the emptiest, deepest sleep she'd ever been in in her whole life. Why she had woken up so abruptly, especially since there was no apparent cause, was a mystery to her. The room was still dark and quiet, and she was in the same position she had been in when she went to bed ago. So why in Oz-?

Suddenly, the bed a few feet away from Glinda's began to shake and shudder. Or rather, the girl sleeping within its black sheets was. Glinda dismissed it as the girl just moving around in her sleep, but when the movements became increasingly violent and showed no signs of stopping, Glinda became nervous. She jumped delicately out of her pink and frilly bed and darted over to her roommate's black one.

"Elphie? Elphie! Wake up!" Glinda called out to her sleeping roommate, shaking her shoulder in attempt to rouse her. Her confusion turned to concern the longer Elphaba remained lock inside of whatever nightmare was holding her hostage. She had never seen her roommate looking so scared, emotional and vulnerable. Glinda could feel her heart doing cartwheels in her chest. What was going on? Was this normal? Why wasn't Elphaba waking up? Why did she look so... haunted?!

"Elphie?! ELPHIE!" Glinda finally shouted her roommate's pet name once, and that did it. Elphaba shot up with the same intensity Glinda had, though she had woken up covered in sweat, her hair wild and tangled and her eyes tinged with red, bloodshot. Instead of flinching away in fear, disgust or surprise like most people would have upon seeing Elphaba's crazed expression, Glinda only drew even closer to the poor girl and she began to caress her. Glinda petted her back, shoulders and arms. At last, Glinda even was able to touch Elphaba's cheek. The fact that Elphaba hardly even responded to any of this at all was another massive red flag for Glinda, if the night-terror and wild expression hadn't been enough.

Glinda finally sat down beside Elphaba and she took one deep breath before asking her first question.

"Elphie, what was that?" she asked slowly, carefully. She received no reply. "Elphie?" she tried again, but Elphaba still refused to even look at her. This one-sided back and forth continued for a little while more before Glinda finally decided to put her foot down. As delicate and dainty as she was, Glinda still always got her way, and she was the only person who would ever defy Elphaba. She was the only person who did not allow Elphaba to always do as she pleased. On the contrary, especially when it came to Elphaba's personal health, Glinda became quite ferocious and demanding and she would not allow Elphaba to weasel her way out of this one. Not this time.

"Elphaba Thropp!" her voice was still quiet, but the gentle, coaxing tone had turned strong and serious. It finally did the trick.

"It was just a dumb nightmare, ok?!" Elphaba snapped defensively. Glinda was undaunted by the wicked glare Elphaba gave her.

"Did you want to talk about it?" she asked, gentler tone returning. For a moment, Elphaba could only keep glaring at her roommate, angered that Glinda was able to boss her around so easily, but then she finally remembered why... It was because they were friends. It was because Glinda was the first and only to see past Elphaba's mean, green exterior. She was the only one to see how vulnerable and in need of care Elphaba really was. It was why Glinda was so fiercely protective of her, it was why Glinda was always able to get Elphaba to obey when it really counted, like now. Finally, Elphaba yielded, her scowl fading into a resigned sadness, and she told her story.

"I had a nightmare that you were arrested," the green girl admitted. "They sent you to Southstairs..." both Elphaba and Glinda shivered a little at the thought. Southstairs was the largest, scariest prison in all of Oz, located somewhere within the Emerald City, but still kept very departed from civilian life so as not to disturb the upright folks from enjoying the majesty the metropolis had to offer. Southstairs had a reputation of being particularly inhumane, its inmates kept in dark, dank, dirty little cells and sometimes even forgotten until they rotted away, their iron bars becoming their tomb. But even those who were not forgotten and did eventually leave that awful place often came out insane, or deeply changed. If it didn't kill the body, it killed the mind and soul. It was amazing such a place could exist within the most paradisiacal part of Oz, but it did, and no one ever forgot it. The night suddenly seemed so much colder and darker to the two young Shiz students, but Glinda tossed her golden curls determinedly.

"Come now Elphie, what are the odds _I_ would be jailed?" she asked. "And even if I was, I'd just wait for you to save me!" she forced a smile onto her pretty face in attempt to lighten the mood. She even waited for Elphaba to offer up some snarky reply about her being too reliant, but the reply never came. Instead, Elphaba only sighed, looking totally broken. Her voice sounded just the same.

"Glinda. Please. Just go to bed. I can't talk about this right now," she sounded so miserable and so lost inside of her own head that Glinda felt the distant chill of Southstairs snaking down her spine and prickling across her arms even though she had never seen the place in person (thank Oz). Elphaba turned away from Glinda, but Glinda could see from the way her shoulders quaked that she was crying again.

"Elphie? Oh, Elphie, please don't cry..." Glinda carefully touched Elphaba's back. Elphaba flinched violently, but Glinda did not draw back. Instead, she waited for a few moments before carefully, slowly wrapping her arm around Elphaba. Then she wrapped the other arm around the green girl as well until she was giving Elphaba a strange, sideways hug. It wasn't much and Elphaba still refused to turn around and face her, but Glinda didn't mind. Instead, she just began to whisper soft words of condolence and care, trying to reassure her friend that no matter what might've happened in her nightmare, it was only just that. A nightmare. _This_ was the real world. _This_ was the waking world, the truth. Glinda really was still here, alive and well, not locked away and lost in an underground labyrinth of death, despair and madness. She was still here, in Shiz, with Elphaba. That was real. That was the truth. Anything else in Elphaba's mind was nothing but a cruel and terrible trick. Southstairs was still hundreds of miles away and the law was nowhere near coming for Glinda. Everything was ok, everything was alright.

Slowly, slowly, minute by minute, Elphaba finally managed to get her tears under control. It still took her awhile to turn around and face Glinda, but she no longer was shaking. That was a good sign. Then at last, Elphaba finally began to turn around.

"Thank you, Glinda," Elphaba muttered at last. It was still clear she was ashamed at being so vulnerable, a thought that Glinda despised, but the fact that Elphaba was at least feeling well enough to talk was good enough for Glinda. They would work on everything else later. All that mattered right now was getting Elphaba out of that awful prison of her mind and back into Shiz and at Glinda's side, right where she belonged.

"Don't mention it," Glinda replied. "It's what friends do for each other."

"Yeah," Elphaba's voice was still strained, but she was talking and responding. That was good enough for now.

In the hours to come, Glinda finally got Elphaba to at least lie back down again. Glinda pushed their beds together again and curled up beside the green girl, holding her close. Glinda did all she could to make Elphaba smile again as they lay there, side by side, and she was stunned but pleased when she finally made the green girl laugh a little. It was the prettiest, sweetest sound in all of Oz. By the time the two girls had finally reentered the world of dreams, they had gone in a very different way than they had come out hours ago, and that was a very good thing. There would be no more nightmares that night, for either of them.

 _ **AN: You can see this as either a sequel or an AU to the first chapter, either works. Also, anyone familiar with Southstairs has read the book, kudos to you!**_


End file.
